Flora and Palladium play a little game
by yamifannetje
Summary: Flora and Palladium play a little game
1. Chapter 1

**More fanfcition about Flora and Palladium has been asked and so here it is! I hope you people like it. Reviews will be greatly appreciated. Thanks and enjoy reading!**

Flora sat on her desk, an empty piece of paper before her. She was thinking about her next step into the little game she and professor Palladium had set up.

Chatta sat next to the paper.

"What are you going to ask?"

Chatta had been very excited when she had discovered what Flora was doing. She hadn't been able to shut up about it and Bloom and Lockette had almost discovered something was going on under their noses. Flora had told Bloom it had had something to do with her homework and the fairy of the dragon flame hadn't asked further.

Flora sighed in frustration and planted her fist on the desk. "I don't know, Chatta! I seem unable to think about anything."

"Did you try my propostion yet?"

Flora pushed herself away from the table and stood up. Chatta had offered her a good riddle but she might fall death if she was ever going to send it to Palladium. He might turn his back on her as soon as he read it.

"You didn't, did you?" Chatta asked. She had come to her feet and stood with her arms crossed on the desk, watching her fairy with an annoyed look. "Why can't you just trust me? I was right about Helia too when I told you to tell him how you felt."

"Please, don't talk about Helia. That's over ok? He's with the prinsess, now."

"Because you locked him out of anything!" Chatta became impatiently. So did Flora.

"No, because he likes her. More than he likes me."

Flora sat down again. With another sigh she took up her pencil and started to write.

Chatta knelt down to read it. Her eyes grew wide and she smiled broadly.

"Oh, Flora!" she took Flora's face and pushed herself against it in a bizar hug. "It will be great, I assure you!"

"Au! Chatta!"

The pixie laughed. "Sorry, Flora. It's just so great! You two will be such a nice couple."

"Keep that down a bit!" Flora hissed.

Bloom, who had been resting after a though days of chores, opened her eyes and looked sleepishly around.

"Chatta, is that you? Flora?"

"We are sorry, Bloom. We didn't mean to wake you up. Where's Lockette?"

"She's still with Digit and Tecna."

"Oh, ok. Sleep well, Bloom."

"Nice evening, Flora and Chatta."

Flora looked again at the paper and added it to her homework. That done, she prepared to go to bed and settled in for the night.

 **(To be continued)**


	2. Chapter 2

Palladium had corrected all the papers he had got that day. All of them, except one. Flora, as Always, had done a more than excellent job with it so he hadn't need much time to correct it. What did absorb his time was the paper she had added to it.

The paper was checkedIn the middel were two green ones. When he had handed the paper to Flora two days ago, all fragments had been white. He had written a riddle in the middel of the paper and Flora had solved it, which had given her the right to color two squares. The challenge was as soon as possible to write the first letter of the other's name, whih meant Flora had to paint a "P" and he himself had to form an "F". Flora had chosen to color two next to each other in the middle.

Across the paper, in pink letters there was another riddle.

 _The strongest which lives behind me but in front of him_

Palladium thought for a moment. The riddle clearly contained several parts: "the strongest" - "me" - "him". The riddle was adressing him af course, but Palladium immediately hypothesized "him" referred to himself and "me" must indicate Flora. Something that lived, existed between them. Palladium could only think of one thing: love. He blushed at the thought. If someone would come in at the moment, he or she would think he was suffering from the heat.

It was likely Flora was talking about her feelings. Did she feel love, true love towards him? Palladium shuddered. He did like the fairy of nature very much, he must admit to himself, but was he in love with her? Palladium pondered about the question for a while, the riddle forgotten. He shook his head a couple of times. No, he didn't love Flora. hJe liked her, yes, and he cared for her, but he was not in love with her.

But Flora did love him. Or she thought she did. The riddle was about love. But love was not the answer. It couldn't be. It shouldn't be.

 _The strongest which lives behind me but in front of him_

Something behind Flora but in front of someone else. A male person. But who? Who did Flora mean to refer to? It must be someone he knew. Or knew about... A man in Flora's life or his own who they both knew? Palladium thought a moment longer. The only possibility he could think of were the specialist of Red Fountain. Flora and the other Winx had good bonds with certain boys of the school for magical knights and were enarly always in the company of a select group: prince Sky and Brandon, Timmy and Riven. And Helia.

It was him. It must have something to do with Helia. But why? why would Flora have chosen to make a riddle about Helia? Was the riddle a hidden message for him that she didn't want to go on? That she was willing to play a bit but that she didn't want to go any further? Possibly. But was it him or herself she wanted to convince? Palladium thought it with some bitterness in his mind. He hadn't seen such a thing in Flora. If she still loved Helia, or doubted about their breaking up, then why should she put up with him, risking to hurt and lose both him and Helia?

Palladium shook his head. He didn't want to think about it anymore.

The next morning he gave back the hosmework there were a lot of disappointed faces. One of them was Flora's but not because she had got a bad score. The opposite, hers had turned out to be one of the best. Palladium avoided her questioning glance and started his story for that day.

When the girls prepared to leave the class room, he heard them discussing the groups they would form for a project Professor WizGiz had planned for them. Suddenly saddened, Palladium sat down at his desk. One of the girls was raisng her voice to come out above the others. The girl who was talking, had stopped in the doorway and turned around to a much taller girl.

"No, Clarissa. You can't come with us. We are with three already."

Another girl said: "Oh, come on, Sam, she can come, if she wants."

"No, she can't. With Sylvia in our group, we are complete. Me, you and her. As we always do."

The girl didn't say more. "Sorry, Clarissa. "Sam stated. "I really am, but sylvia is our friend. We always work together."

"It's fine." Clarissa assured her and left. She was sure the girl wasn't sorry at all. On her way out, she shot a jeaous look at the Winx who had always each other to team up.

While Clarissa walked away abngrily and the Winx gathered to see how they would split up, Palladium had started to collect his own things when suddenly it was there: the sollution at flora's riddle, clear as the purest water. He blushed furiously.

Red untill behind his ears, he repeated his thoughts slowly. The girl Sam had said: _With Sylvia our group will be complete. Me, you and her._

One moment he had wondered why Sylvia had not been with Sam and the other girl then at the moment but his pity for Clarissa had made place for another thought. _Me, you and her._

 _Behind me but in front of him._

 _I, you, he or she, we, you, they._

 _Behind me. In front of ...her. Or him._

You.

Palladium felt his heart beating faster with exitement. The answer was "you"?

It surely was an original answer but something stopped him from taking his pencil and the paper with the riddle to write it down. The part about love made him feel uneasy. Maybe he should't answer at all and stop the game. Stop giving her false hope.

More so, "you" seemed a bit dull for an answer. It was to abstract. It wasn't the answer. Palladium knew the answer. He didn't dare to write it down. It would be to arrogant.

Though he grasped the pencil steadily and wrote down the answer:

PALLADIUM

With a trembling hand Palladium wrote down the letters of his name one by one, slowing down with every letter. He had only one chance. Just had he written down his name when he was sure it was the wrong answer and he had lost the game.

The letters disappeared, a moment of absolute silence and remorse, and then the red pencil in his hand changed into a blue one. Surprised, Palladium stared at it for a moment before he colored two squares.

Palladium was fairly certain Flora intended to start with the upperside of the bow of the "P" so he decided to block her by coloring the two squares above the left green one.

Done, he took the paper with him to hand it to Flora at a silent moment.

 **(To be continued)**


	3. Chapter 3

Flora was not happy. She had just received another papaer, corrected and a good mark on top of it, but no riddle.

She did a good job in hiding her disappointment but when Aïsha and Musa asked her to join them for a stroll to Musa's music café after class, she friendly refused.

"Are you all right, Flora?" Bloom asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired." she smiled faintly.

Palladium avoided Flora's searching eyes when everyone settled down.

Flora's stared down at her homework again and kept her eyes there untill her eyeslids threatened to droop. She averted her gaze to Musa's back, grateful the fairy of music didn't look back when she clearly felt her eyes on her.

Why did it take Palladium so long to answer her? Didn't he want to go on? But why than didn't he say so? had she offended him by her riddle? why had she ever listened to Chatta and chosen that particular riddle?

Flora was so frustrated that her hands curled into fists. Aïsha looked at her from the corner of her eye.

"Flora." she whispered.

Flora didn't answer.

"Flora."

Flora turned her head and shook it. she closed her eyes and a single tear rolled over her cheek.

Palldium watched the silent communication closely. He felt rather fed up himself. He still hadn't given any feedback to Flora. Maybe he should do as he had planned that morning and sending her a little note, just to let her know what had hem so delayed.

When he saw Flora was doing her utter most not to cry he started to feel guilthy. Ridiculous, of course. As if her sadness had something to do with him and their game. But he felt bad about it anyway.

After class the winx split up. Aïsha and Musa went to the music café. Stella went off for another rendez-vous with Brandon and she took Bloom with her, ready to take her and Sky into it too. So Tecna was the only one left to wait for Flora. Flora all but ran off when the other Winx went to their various occupations.

Palladium wanted to go after her but held back when he saw Tecna staring at him attentively.

"Did you want to ask something, Tecna?"

Tecna hurriedly shook her head. "No! I..." she couldn't come up so soon with a logical explanation for staring at him like that without betraying her distrust so she decided to a soft excuse: "Sorry, professor. I was just thinking."

Without as much as another glance at Palladium, Tecna walked away, wishing Musa and the others were still around.

 **Sorry for the late and not so best updat, but I'm delay with my writing. Feel free though to reply! Enjoy reading. :D**


	4. Chapter 4

Flora walked to class with the other Winx. She still had received nothing form Palladium. She was very close to giving up there would come something. In class, she sat down silently, avoiding Palladium's eye.

She had been surprised a bit he had cracked her former riddle. But then, she knew he was clever. And beautiful. How could girls ever think otherwise? Some did though. They prefered the darker hair and sterner looks from Avalon. Well, they could have him.

While listening to Palladium, she thought about another riddle. It came to her very smoothly. She wrote it down on the edge of the paper which was before her. Surely he would ask them to hand in the task at the end of the lesson and so he would have another riddle, wether he was still in the game or not.

So Palladium, when he had gathered the papers, found himself mulling about the riddle.

 _Which has no beginning end no ending but still isn't endless._

Something that had no beginning and no end and still was limited. Palladium was convinced the solutiuon again would be something abstract but then got an sudden idea which he was sure must be it.

A ring.

Flora had taken a whole other way in her thinking. From abstract to material. And not just that, a ring was an object ever fairy, every elf, every creature in the magic dimension knew. Could it be that easily? Perhaps. Flora was impatient, so much was clear. This was only meant as a sign of her side for hem to hurry up. Maybe she didn't even mean it to be solved. But now he had solved it, he could as well go on with the game from here. She had made up the thing during class, he suspected, and had had not much time to make something cunning and complex. Palladium grinned, in spite of his sad feelings for letting Flora feel as if he had dumped her. He would not do that again. If she gave him another chance.

He took his red pen to write down his answer. Unfortunately, the pen didn't change to blue. The answer was wrong.

Then another thought came to him: _Magic._

Magic too was limited but it had no clear beginnings en endings. It was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. And surely it was an answer as easy for Flora to come up with as a ring.

Flora was playing with the bracelet Bloom had given her with Christmas some years ago. The first time she and the other Winx had ever heard of that. It had seemed a nice time full of warmth and friendship. And presents. The bracelet had been the inspiration for the riddle she had made up for Palladium. She wondered what the professor would come up with for an answer.  
A little _ting_ -sound made her look around. Chatta flew towards the piece of paper she knew so well. _He had answered._ Her heart jumped with joy. She read what was on the paper and laughed.

 _You won. :(_

"Hey, Flora, what's up?"

Bloom came in the room. Flora dropped the paper. Kiko grabbed it before she could pick it up and hopped away.

"Kiko!"Flora tried to grap the rabbit but Kiko was to fast and jumped atop of Bloom's wardrobe.

"Kiko, give that back." Bloom said sternly. A bit sad, Kiko came down and handed the paper to Flora, who grasped it a bit harder than necessary. Kiko was startled at her fierceness.

"You're all right, Flora?" Bloom asked her friend. She had been surprised too.

"Yes! It's fine. It's...fine." Flora sat down on the bed and sighted. "I can as well tell you, I suppose. Oh, Kiko." The little rabbit sat next to Bloom on the bed, still unsure and looking startled. Flora offered him a big carrot. "Forgive me, Kiko. I shouldn't have been so harsh with you, little one." She carressed him between his ears. Kiko smiled and rubbed his head against her hand.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Bloom asked. She was curious as to what her friend was up to. It wasn't like Flora to having secrets and going around scaring people for it.

Flora shrugged. "I suppose." And so she told her roommate about the game. Bloom was amused but not reproachful or whatever Flora had expected she would be. She asked: "What are you going to do now? Now the game has ended I mean."

Flora shrugged.

"Is there a price?" Blom sounded definitely mischievous.

Flora blushed furiously at that. She surely knew something she'd like to claim for a price. "Since I played before my turn, I didn't really win, did I?" she asked, amused at Bloom's expression.

"In fact you did, since you thought Palladium gave up." Flora couldn't entirely disagree with that.

"Look." Bloom pointed at the paper. "There's something else on the paper."

Flora took the paper. "You are right, Bloom. It's another riddle."

"Well, I believe you are still playing."

"So it would seem." agreed Flora, smiling and blushing.

"I'll leave you to it. Kiko."

"Bloom? Don't tell anyone?"

"Not a word."

Bloom closed the door behind her and on her way to Stella's room, wondered what was huge, small, yellow, black and white and had a great mouth.


End file.
